Lebanon Files U.N. Complaint against Israel for Violating 1701

The Foreign Ministry on Friday submitted a complaint against Israel to the U.N. Security Council over its violation of Resolution 1701 through the retaliatory shelling that followed Hizbullah's operation in the occupied Shebaa Farms.

The complaint was filed through Lebanon's envoy to the U.N. Nawwaf Salam.

The letter calls for condemning Israel “in the strongest terms over the shelling against Lebanon on January 28, 2015, which represented a blatant violation of its sovereignty, the U.N. Charter, the rules of the international law and the U.N. Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 1701.”

The ministry also asked the Security Council to probe “the Israeli attack against the U.N. forces which left a Spanish soldier dead,” calling for holding Tel Aviv directly responsible for “this deplored act and its consequences.”

“Lebanon's envoy submitted the complaint to the president of the Security Council, asking that it be officially distributed to all of the council's members today, Friday,” state-run National News Agency reported.

The violence erupted Wednesday when Hizbullah fired a salvo of anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms, killing two soldiers and wounding seven. Israel responded with shelling and a Spanish peacekeeper was killed in the exchange.

Hizbullah said the operation was in response to a January 18 Israeli air raid on a Hizbullah convoy in Syria's Quneitra which killed six Hizbullah fighters, including prominent militants, and a top Iranian general.

Spain's ambassador to the United Nations blamed Israel for the death of the Spaniard on Wednesday. The U.N. said the cause of death remains the subject of investigation.

Y.R.

M.T.